


Hum

by SimonBlackchill



Series: Zenyatta and Genji's travels together [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Affection, Bad Jokes, Crushes, Developing Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Genyatta - Freeform, Holding Hands, Inspired by Poetry, M/M, Other, Public Display of Affection, Rain, Robot Feels, Robot/Human Relationships, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Zenyatta and Genji travel together, early in relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 21:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11586216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimonBlackchill/pseuds/SimonBlackchill
Summary: Genji and Zenyatta are caught in a pouring rain in a city during their travels. They take shelter, and Genji realizes how truly blessed the moment is, with the intense rain and Zenyatta's humming. Location: an alleyway of an unspecified city.





	Hum

  _Spinning like a ghost_  
_on the bottom of a_  
_top,_  
_I’m haunted by all_  
_the space that I_  
_will live without_  
_you._  
  
\- Richard Brautigan, The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster (1968)

* * *

 

Genji leaned his head back against the grey tiles and adjusted his blade better on the ground next to him. He nudged himself closer to the companion next to him, to share a bit of warmth.

"Heavy raindrops, like idle bullets they fall," said Zenyatta as he listened to the hard tapping sounds of rain hitting against the small tin cover above them. The rain was so thick that the narrow city streets looked grey, and they could not see a single soul walking outside in the night. The neon lights stung in Genji's vision. They were not friendly to tired eyes, even through the cybernetic visor he wore.

"It will last quite long."

"How do you know?" asked Genji and lazily pulled out his throwing stars and started to fiddle with one of them.

"How did a skeleton know it was going to rain?" asked Zenyatta. Genji chuckled.

"She felt it in her bones?"

"She read it from the newspaper. As did I."

"Ah."

They had spent a good amount of time in a small pub earlier, and Zenyatta as usual had taken some time to go through the newest papers. War, famine, disease, but amongst them good news and some things to smile about. Genji, for the most part, just wanted to read the comics, and Zenyatta had split the papers with him accordingly.

The tapping of the waterdrops became a hum. Genji took a deep breath and focused on the sounds, listened to the melodies he could hear from the sound of water. And soon enough, another thing hummed - Zenyatta made a sound of a deep breath, placed his wrists on his knees and let out a long, relaxing hum. It revebrated in frequencies that made Genji's bones vibrate in a soothing manner. He could close his eyes and listen to both the rain and Zenyatta, with no feeling of urgency, anywhere.

"It will pass," said Genji. Zenyatta's hum went lower in pitch as he nodded a few times.

"Rain will always pass." The words came from his synthesizer despite the ongoing humming, a thing that every now and then reminded Genji of his status as an Omnic, and not a human. Genji himself could also speak without drawing breaths, but he could not both hum and talk at the same time.

"I almost wish it wouldn't," Genji murmured.

"Interesting. You usually want to be outside, and rain has a tendency of ushering you indoors."

"True, Master. However, this moment here," Genji said and tapped his knee with his fingertip, "I wish to have eternally."

"What is it about this moment that makes you feel that way?"

A flush of heat came over Genji as he thought about it. It would take a small nudge to the right for him to be in physical contact with Zenyatta, for their arms to touch. And a little bit of leaning to the right, he could place his head on Zenyatta's bare shoulder. Indeed, the moment was not perfect for him yet, but he still wished for it to go on.

"You are deep in your thoughts, Genji." The humming started to form a slow melody, in some minor notes that made it sound both hopeful and forlorn.

"Aren't all moments precious like this?" Genji asked. Zenyatta chuckled.

"Beyond question, they are. However, you are not usually one to say that you wish a moment lasted forever. That is not to say you are not present in the moment, but you get... what is the word..." Zenyatta waved his hand in the air softly. "Restless sometimes. But you need not tell me the reason. If you so choose, I will be at peace with it. Hmmmmmm..."

Genji opened his eyes to look at Zenyatta who hovered just a few centimetres above the ground, legs folded in a lotus position. Zenyatta had a magnetic air around him, something that pulled Genji towards him but that Genji actively resisted. This was not really the time to be leaning towards his master uninvited. He ground his teeth and tapped his knees again, this time with all fingers in a fast rhythm that matched that of the rain.

"But you do want to tell me," Zenyatta said. "I heard your mouth open."

 _Curses_ , thought Genji. His mics were more sensitive than he'd thought. "It's a quiet moment with you, Master."

"Are moments with me then usually noisy?"

"There is no one else here," Genji said and looked around. "Not a soul. It is you, I, and the rain." His mouth dried. "It is something I can not possibly appreciate enough, Master."

"Then I am happy I took you with me." It sounded like a sigh.

Genji's heart fluttered. "Are you?"

"Your insight to the events around us, your opinions on our next courses of action... They are invaluable." Zenyatta's humming ceased and he placed his fingertips against one another, fiddled the tip of his forefinger.

Genji laid his hand next to himself on the ground, scratched the damp asphalt. "I still wish this moment lasted forever."

"Me too, Genji. It would be a great blessing."

"Hmm?"

"But I do realize that this moment will come to an end." Zenyatta's shoulders relaxed and he lifted his chin, resumed the hum, but in a quieter volume. "That is why I must enjoy it to its fullest."

"How do you enjoy it to its fullest, Master?"

"I ask myself... How can I get everything that is good from this moment?"

Genji bit his lip.

"How can I make the moment one of those I will not regret?"

That was it. "I am happy to be here with you, Master, and I would like to sit a bit closer to you."

Genji's mouth dried right after he'd said it. His desire was spoken out loud, but he did not dare to move himself accordingly. Indeed, he felt like he should have done the polar opposite - to move farther away to show that he was alright with distance, with no touch with his master.

"Then do, Genji. In fact, I invite you to, with great and deeply personal glee."

His voice sounded as if he'd spoken the words through a wide smile. It was the contagious kind, even if nonexistent. He took a sharp breath and considered his options. He became aware of his hand lying close to where Zenyatta's white hip cloth was, where its folds met the ground and hid some of the space between his legs and the ground. The air around his hand vibrated and the small cybernetic muscles in his fingers tensed up, nigh painfully. Zenyatta did notice how Genji stared at his own hand, and his humming continued a slow melody.

And he lowered his hands so that his fingertips met the ground, tapped against the asphalt - or rather, his fingers met the asphalt naturally, and he did not tap it with any specific intention.

The moment was so silent Genji felt like he opened up. The lack of people around him and the veil of silence the rain embraced him with gave him space to loosen up, to have his walls lower a little bit and have his shyness take a short break. It was not that Zenyatta did not know how Genji felt, but he had not yet done anything to appease the feeling, the desires, either.

"Your laughter, Master. I like it."

"Oh?"

"And when it's just the two of us, it's... It's more likely for me to... to hear it."

His hand crawled closer to Zenyatta's. Before his fingertip could touch the metallic hand, Zenyatta lifted the hand away. And the split second of disappointment sent Genji reeling for a short moment, spinning around in a pit of shame, in the bottom of the top, top of the bottom. But the second, it ended with the cool touch of Zenyatta's wirey hand, as it laid upon Genji's, pressed it comfortingly against the ground.

The pressure in which Genji's hand lay had a comfort to it, something warm even when it was metal against hard fabric. It was a warmth that existed only upon contact. It was a reactionary warmth, something that sparked only when two entities brushed together, had contact. Meaningful contact.

"What a kind thing for you to say, Genji. I rather fancy your laughter as well. You sound like a young boy again whenever you laugh, even when you try to sound bigger than you are."

"I do that?"

"You do that."

Genji nudged himself closer, until his arm brushed Zenyatta's. Zenyatta's gasp was soft, so soft it drowned in the rain. The rain showed no signs of ceasing. Neither did Zenyatta's hum. The hum of his fans that set off, triggered by the touch. The hum of his voice synthesizer, with a clear goal of calming them both down, lulling them to a state of meditative focus.

Zenyatta let himself descend on the ground, his head was slightly lower now that Genji's. And Genji took it as a sign - he leaned his head against Zenyatta's, heard a quiet "bonk" from their metal covers meeting.

"Let this last forever," he muttered.

"It will last forever in your heart, Genji." Zenyatta sounded quiet, his voice had the smile again. "And in mine, storaged in the most precious of vaults."

 

**Author's Note:**

> \- "Really? A silly skeleton joke?" Yes. Yes?  
> \- Genji totally loves the comics of newspapers. There totally still are newspapers in the future. Trust me.  
> \- I find myself specialising in Genyatta fluff oneshots...  
> \- Ficlet powered by [RUDE - Eternal Youth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhHGDOgjie4) and [MyNoise.net's "Tin Roof Rain" noise generator](https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/tinRoofRainNoiseGenerator.php).  
> 


End file.
